The FTC is looking into whether Google changes search results to favor its own sites. The agency hasn't decided whether to bring a formal case against Google yet, but hiring an outside lawyer is a big step. The FTC has only done it twice in the last decade, according to the Times.

The last time something like this happened in the tech industry is when the Department of Justice brought in David Boies to oversee the Microsoft trial.

And we all know how that went -- emails were exposed, executives deposed, and the company was eventually split in two.

In the end, Microsoft stayed intact, but it paid billions in fines from related cases, and the antitrust case contributed to its fall from the top of the tech heap.